Judge rules suspect’s reported confessions in Delphi, Indiana girls’ murders can be used

DELPHI, Ind. (CBS) — Numerous reported confessions by the Delphi, Indiana double murder suspect can be used in court, a judge ruled this week.

Richard Allen is charged with two counts of murder in the 2017 slayings of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams. His trial is scheduled for October.

CBS affiliate WTTV in Indianapolis reported Special Judge Fran Gull—who was assigned to the Carroll County, Indiana case from Allen County where Fort Wayne is located—ruled Thursday that all of Allen’s statement to psychologists, inmates, guards, and family members from within jail can be used as evidence.

Allen’s defense team had tried to get these statements thrown out.

Prosecutors have said previously that Allen confessed in prison phone calls to his wife. His attorneys have blamed four other people for the murders.  

Libby and Abigail were found dead in February 2017, a day after they were reported missing following a visit to a hiking trail near their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Liberty and Abigail were found stabbed to death on a hiking trail near an abandoned railroad bridge.

Allen, a drugstore pharmacy technician in the town of 3,000, wasn’t arrested until October 2022. He has pleaded not guilty.

Police have said Libby snapped a photo of the killer and recorded his voice on her cell phone before she died.